Qualitative Research

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Qualitative Research

• Origins Philosophies and Methods of this New
  Paradigm

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Question 2 from Jan 04

• Question 2
• Suppose that you wanted to carry out a
  psychological research study into attitudes to
  people with tattoos. What would be the advantages
  and disadvantages of using a qualitative approach
  to answering this question?
• It would be useful in your answer if you outlined
  and evaluated a range of possible approaches
  (both quantitative and qualitative) to carrying
  out this investigation. You should also discuss
  the ethical issues that may arise in an
  investigation into this area.
  
  (30 marks)

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A brief history of Psychological Research Methods

• Wundt (1879) structuralist 1st experimental
  psychology department (introspection)
• Ebbinghaus (late 19thC) empirical systematic
  observation
• William James functionalism led to
  behaviourism (e.g. Skinner (1904 -19990) in the
  1930s to 50s(where only directly observable
  events should be studied no room for
  introspection)
• Freud (Late19th
• early 20thC)developed the speculative
  psychoanalytic theory which derived from peoples
  subjective introspections

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A brief history of Psychological Research Methods

• In 50s 60s Humanistic Psychology (e.g. Carl
  Rogers or Abraham Maslow) reacted to the
  objectivity of behaviourism and the unconscious
  of Psychoanalytic theory and became the 3rd force
  using a phenomenological approach (i.e. the study
  of subjective conscious experience)
• More recently there has been the cognitive
  revolution and the biological revolution leading
  to cognitive neuroscience.

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Positivism

• Single real world
• Purpose of psychology is to discover reality
  through experiments
• Psychological world can be measured
• General laws can be discovered

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Phenomenology Existentialism

• Husserl (1859 -1938) the starting point for any
  study should be experience.
• Existentialism the only thing that we know is
  what we experience now
• Idiographic approaches (e.g. Allport (1897-1967)

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Social constructionism

• There are many local and individual realities
• World is constructed through social interactions
  (symbolic interactionism)
• Personal Construct Theory (George Kelly, 1905
  1967)

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The turn to interpretation(hermeneutics)

• Conclusions of research are interpretations
• Ricoeurs hermeneutics of meaning-recollection
  and the hermeneutics of suspicion (the double
  hermeneutic cycle)

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Modernity Postmodernity

• Modernism believes in progress towards
  understanding the real world through ever
  improving theories
• Postmodernism rejects grand theories that can
  explain all. Psychological theories are just more
  examples of situated discourses (e.g. Foucault)

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One paradigm or many?(paradigm a shared view
of the world in terms of how to go about research
and what constitutes valid data)

• Physics has usually had just one dominant
  paradigm (e.g. Newtonian or Einsteinian).
• Psychology has many paradigms e.g. biological,
  cognitive, psychoanalytic, behaviourist,
  humanistic etc. In fact depending on how paradigm
  is defined the number can vary.
• One distinction often made though is between
  quantitative qualitative methods and to some
  extent the methods chosen may reflect different
  paradigms. Alternatively it may just be that some
  questions can be answered by quantitative methods
  while others need qualitative methods.

• Thomas Kuhn

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What is Science?(A Stereotypical View)

• Masculine?
• General laws?
• Facts?
• Value free?
• Authoritative?
• Objective?
• Supported by Evidence?
• Laboratories?

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What is Positivism?

• Adopts the Natural Science Model
• Uses only observable measurable data (e.g.
  behaviourism)
• Aim is to develop universal generalisable laws
• There are real facts out there

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A less rigid view of Science

• An improvement on common sense
• Systematic
• Rigorous
• Attempts to minimise subjectivity but accepts
  that this is never truly possible
• Checks for validity in a variety of ways
• Always open to change

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Methods of Quantitative Psychology

• Experiments
• Correlational studies
• Official Statistics
• Surveys
• Questionnaires
• Structured observations
• Even interviews (content analysis)

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Analyses of Quantitative Research

• Numbers
• SPSS
• Hypothesis testing
• Statistical Significance
• ANOVA, multiple regression, t-tests etc
• Definite answers

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Characteristics of Quantitative Psychology

• Hard, fixed, objective, value free
• Controlled environments
• Reductionist
• Outcomes
• Causal explanations
• Replicable
• Generalisable

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Strengths Weaknesses of Quantitative Research
Methods

• Strengths
• Large samples
• Control
• Reliability
• Generalisable?
• Statistical analysis
• Subjectivity minimised?
• Replicability

• Weaknesses
• Trivial answers
• Ignores meaning and social context
• Low ecological validity
• Not really value free
• Loses sight of whole person

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Origins of Qualitative Psychology

• Dissatisfaction with quantitative research
• Anthropology (e.g. the Chicago School)
• Ethnography (e.g. Garfinkel)
• Phenomenology (Existentialism Humanistic
  Psychologists)
• Social Constructionism (e.g. Potter Wetherell)
• Post modernism (e.g. Foucault)

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Qualitative Methods

• Interviews
• Observations
• Diary Studies
• Textual analysis
• Ethnography
• Life Story Research

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Qualitative Analyses

• Thematic analysis
• Discourse analysis
• Grounded Theory
• Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
• Reflexive analysis
• Respondent validation
• Triangulation
• Negative Case Analysis

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Characteristics of Qualitative Psychology

• Words (symbols) and their meaning
• Natural settings
• Holistic
• Process
• Rich detailed data
• Flexible, subjective,political

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Strengths Weaknesses of Qualitative Psychology

• Strengths
• Social and cultural context (naturalistic)
• Theories emerge
• Research with rather than on participants
• Accepts contradiction
• High ecological validity
• Sensitive issues can be tackled
• Emphasis on meaning
• Very rich information

• Weaknesses
• Subjective interpretations
• Unreplicable
• Smaller samples
• Low generalisability
• Time consuming analysis
• Questions of validity and reliability
• Positivists might say that it is only good for
  generating hypotheses or for supplementing the
  results of proper quantitative studies

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Quantitative/qualitative debateClaimed Features

• Quantitative
• Hard, fixed, objective, value-free, hypothesis
  testing,
• numbers
• Controlled environments
• Reductionist
• Positivist
• Outcomes
• Concerned with causal explanations
• Replicable

• Qualitative
• Soft, flexible, subjective, political,
  speculative,
• symbols (words)
• Focus on natural settings
• Holistic
• Hermeneutic (concerned with meaning
• Process
• Concerned with induction and grounded theory
• Rich detailed data

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Positivism Qualitative Approach

• Positivism (Quantitative)
• Adopts the natural Science model
• Uses only observable measurable data
• Aim is to develop laws
• There are real facts out there

• Qualitative
• Concerns itself with meaning
• Researcher is part of the research
• There is no one reality but a socially
  constructed one
• Focuses on lived experience of human beings in
  social and historical context

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Methods Commonly Used

• Quantitative
• Experiments
• Interviews (Content analysis)
• Correlations
• Surveys
• Structured observation
• Official Statistics

• Qualitative
• Textual analysis
• Interviews (Thematic Discourse analysis)
• Diary Studies
• Participant unstructured observation
• Life Story Research

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So, back to Question 2 from Jan 04

• Suppose that you wanted to carry out a
  psychological research study into attitudes to
  people with tattoos. What would be the advantages
  and disadvantages of using a qualitative approach
  to answering this question?
• It would be useful in your answer if you outlined
  and evaluated a range of possible approaches
  (both quantitative and qualitative) to carrying
  out this investigation. You should also discuss
  the ethical issues that may arise in an
  investigation into this area.
  
  (30 marks)

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Strategy

• Stay focused on the actual question e.g.
  attitudes to tattoos
• Think of a range of possible quantitative ways of
  researching the area and for each method think of
  strengths weaknesses (including ethical
  considerations)
• Then focus on the more qualitative approaches to
  researching this area and say what might be good
  or bad about these approaches not forgetting to
  discuss ethics here as well